Let’s be realistic, just for a moment: the Bears probably aren’t trading up in the draft this year. They’re picking high enough to still land an elite prospect somewhere on their roster, and I’m not sure how badly Ben Johnson wants to mortgage the farm in Year 1. Landing a top 10(ish) prospect at a specific position of need is probably Good Enough for this year. It would be, sigh, the rational decision.
There is, however, another way. Instead of being practical, what if the Bears just absolutely send it on Thursday night and firmly secure themselves as Offseason Winners? Admit it, that’d kinda rule. And it gets even better: all it’d take is the willing participation of the New York Giants, which should tell you all you need to know. According to ESPN’s Pete Schrager, New York is absolutely willing to listen to calls for the third overall pick on Thursday night, which means the Bears’ long-forgotten dreams of landing Abdul Carter are BACK.
The Bears’ opportunity to land Abdul Carter is staring them right in the face
“There have been phone calls made to both the Browns at two and the Giants at three, with the intention to move up, from several different sources telling me there are teams looking to get up in this draft to either the two or the three spot,” he said. “The assumption is it would be for Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, or the running back Ashton Jeanty, who everyone expects to go somewhere in that 5-7-8 range. There have been teams making calls, and those teams are not immeidately slamming down the phone. Everyone assumes it’s going to be chalk … not so fast. I think the two spot gets very interesting if the Browns are listening to a godfather deal … ”
Credit where it’s due: no one spends more time reminding you how many NFL people he texts than Pete. He texts so many people. You don’t even need to worry about confirming with your sources –he’s already on it. Frankly, if the Bears do end up pulling off an all-time great trade for Carter, we should probably solely thank Pete for the texts that made it happen.
And just to get back to football for one last moment – the Bears should absolutely do this. I don’t care what it’d take; I’m not even interested in thinking about it. Some things should happen just because they’re fun, and trading up to land Carter would be one of those things. If the draft insists on being a big dumb TV event that we all have to sacrifice our weekends for, let’s really make it a BIG dumb TV event.
He’d also, you know, be their best edge rusher almost immediately. That’d be nice too.